Central StationTour

As we had booked this tour last week we wanted to go on it so Graham and Morag came in to sit with mum and then take her back to her flat later.

Booked for 12 so we managed a quick Nero and pastry before joining the tour. This picture is of Paul Lyon the national rail employee/historian and I must say it was one of the best tours I have been on! Underneath Central Station is this whole maze of tunnels and stores with a platform dating back to 1840. This was where the dead soldiers were brought back from ww1 by their comrades and the stretchers were laid out on the platform for their next of kin to identify them. Imagine having to bend over a whole big line of dead brave soldiers hunting for any clues to what was your loved one - how f*cking awful. Once identified their loved ones then Had the arduous task of getting the body upstairs and many would ask passersby to help giving them a few bob for their help. This was the point, this horrendous story where the government, who had sent them off to the battlefields, took no responsibility for their welfare after they had fought and died for their country, when I was in tears. And as Paul described the conditions in great detail, a story I had no idea about just couldn't stop crying for these poor families losing their loved ones and then being treated so badly. I can't imagine that the toffs and and officers being treated this way. Inequality which continues to this day in many ways.

Paul's knowledge and delivery makes this tour even more special. His passionionate delivery of stories of the life beneath the station and anecdotes really make this not just a tour but social history of Glasgow.

At the end he came up and gave me a big hug and apologised for upsetting me although he had mentioned at an earlier story as we wandered through the maze of tunnels when we were all laughing that we would be greetin' later and it was so.

There is work starting soon to open this old platform and create it how it looked originally so we will be back to see this. Well worth 13 quid. He also said that when it was Glasgow doors open day in sept the council alllocated 100 tickets for the tour. They got 83,000 applications!!

After that we went to eat Greek at Halloumi in Hope Street. As I was eating gyros pitta I closed my eyes and was almost back in Nafplion. Well not quite but it tasted superb.